A Better Way
by ViennaRoseMelancholia
Summary: I have rewriten the ending of Boundless for those who need to expunge the real one from their minds.


I had to re-write the ending of boundless because it was horrific! How could anyone justify building up three books with "we belong together" calling Clara and Christian a mated pair and making all their scenes all magical and irresistible, electric touch, "it feels so right when we touch," and then throw her with dull old farm boy? Disgusting. This is for everyone who needs to expunge their minds of the bitter aftertaste that was Boundless.

I have included a lot of the original text and simply made amends to it where it needed.  
Let's take it from when they get back from hell and she's trying to take them home, except, instead of the barn, Clara brings them to the forest, where Christian and her first found out about each other being angels.

…That's where I'll take us. We'll be safe there. We can figure things out.  
I reach out my hand for Jeffery and Christian moves to get Angela, but just before he bends to touch her, a sorrow arrow smashes into the glory circle. It doesn't penetrate it, but the attack is enough to make Christian drop it momentarily. In that instant, Asael lunges for Angela and drags her away before I can reach.  
Now I know we're screwed.  
"No!" I scream.  
Asael appears happy, like his day is looking up.  
"Now," he says, suddenly all business. "Let's negotiate. I think a trade might be in order. A life for a life?"  
"I'll go," Angela volunteers immediately. She clears her throat and says it again louder. "I'll come back with you, Father." Her voice wavers on the word.  
Asael scoffs. "I don't want you. Look at you." His eyes sweep up and down her body, lingering at the markings on her arm. _bad daughter._  
She doesn't answer, but part of her seems to shrink inside herself. _No one loves me_ passes through her mind.  
"I want Jeffery," Lucy says, like a child demanding her favourite toy. She looks at him, smiles. "Come on, baby. Come with me."  
Jeffery takes a deep brave breath and starts to step forward, and I catch his arm and pull him back.  
"Dear, sweet Lucy," Asael says as Jeffery and I argue without words for a minute. "I know you have a crush on the boy, and I know you've put a lot of work into him, but I think I'd rather have that one."  
He points to me.  
"No," Christian says.  
Asael smiles wickedly. "Ah, you see? She's valuable. And easy on the eyes." His gaze on me is like a touch, and I shiver, draw my arms over my chest. "I'm looking forward to hearing how you managed to cross out of hell. You'll tell me, won't you? Who's been teaching you?"  
"Take me," Christian says.  
Asael waves his hand dismissively. "I don't even know who you are. Why would I want you?"  
"He's the one who killed Liv,"Lucy accuses.  
Asael's eyes flash. "Is that true? You killed my daughter?"  
I understand Christian's intentions about a second too late.  
"Christian, don't-"  
"Yes," Christian says. "But I'm your son."  
His son  
Oh, boy. I didn't see that one coming. But Christian, I realise, has been seeing this moment. This is his vision, facing down the man who killed his mother. His father.  
Lucy gasps, her face turning up again, eye wide. If Christian is Asael's son, it means that he's also her brother. Her brother and Angela's brother. it's quite the family reunion were having here.  
How long has he known that? I wonder. Why didn't he tell me?  
Asael's eyes widen. "My son? Why ever would you think that you're my son?"  
"You're the collector, right?" Christian looks down at his feet. "You collected my mother. Bonnie was her name. A dimidius. You met her in new York city, 1993."  
"Ah, I remember," Asael says. "Green eyes. Long, pale hair."  
Christian's jaw clenches."  
"A shame what happened with her," Asael continues. "I hate to destroy beautiful things. But she simply would not tell me where I could find you. Tell me, do you have black spots on your wings?"  
"Shut up," Christian mutters. I've never felt that kind of rage from him before, and it's a frightening thing. He'd kill Asael, if he could.  
Asael squints at him thoughtfully, obvious. "Well now, that does change things. Perhaps I want you after all. Even though you'll have to be punished, I suppose, for killing Olivia."  
"No," I say firmly, shaking my head. "I'll go with you."  
_Clara,_ Christian grows in my mind. _Stop talking and let me do this._  
_You are not the boss of me,_ I send back fiercely. _Think about t it. What you did just now, telling him that, was unbelievably brave and selfless and I know you did it for me, but it was…stupid. I don't care what the vision told you. We need to be smart about this. Out of all of us, I'm the most likely to be able to get out of hell on my own. I can get out.  
Not without me, _he says. _You'll go crazy in there without someone to ground you._  
He has a point, but I try to ignore it. _Find my dad,_ I say. _Maybe he can come for me._  
I remember dad's exact words last time we talked. _I can't interfere, _he said. He can't save me. Still, it's what I have to do. And I'm actually stating to form the beginnings of a plan. _I'm going. No more arguing, _I tell Christian. _Besides, you're the one holding up the glory, _I say, and then before he can answer, I step out of it.  
"let her go," I say, my voice traitorously thick. "A life for a life, like you said."  
Asael nods at Lucy, whose dagger disappears from Angela's neck.  
"let her walk to the glory," I say.  
"first, you come to me," Asael insists.  
"How about we do it at the same time?"  
He smiles. "All right. Come."  
I step towards Asael, and Lucy steps towards the circle of glory with Angela.  
_Don't let him touch you,_ Angela whispers fervently in my mind._ He'll poison you.  
_That's a problem I don't know how to I'm am going to avoid. Asael holds out his arms like he's welcoming me home. I can't help but let him touch me, and within seconds his hands are on my shoulders, then his arms are around me like he's embracing me, and Angela's right –my mind fills with regret. All the failures, every wrong move I've ever made, every doubt I've ever had about myself, they all rise up inside me at once.  
I'm a selfish girl, selfish at the core, spoiled, flippant with people around me. I was an ungrateful, disobedient daughter. A bad sister. A terrible friend.  
Weak. Coward. failure.  
Asael murmurs something under his breath, and his wings appear, an ebony cloak that he draws around me. The wold is fading into blackness and cold, and I know that in one moment well be in hell again, and this time it will swallow me whole. I turn my head to get a final glimpse of Christian through Asael's oily feathers.  
I lied to him. I broke his heart. I treated him like a child. I took too long to decide. I couldn't let go of the past. I hurt him.  
"Yes," Asael says, a snake's hiss in my ear. He strokes my hair. "Yes."  
_But that's not all, _a small, bright voice I my head chimes. My own voice.  
_You sought to protect him. You've sacrificed yourself, your very soul, so that he may live. You've put his welfare ahead of your own.  
You love him.  
_I love him. I will pack that thought away inside of me where nothing can touch it. I will preserve it, somehow. I will shape it into something I can use, to protect me when I 'm taken to hell.  
Asael makes a choking noise. I push back against him, the weight of his wings heavy around me, and struggle to see anything but black. his mouth is open, gasping, like he's out of air, and still he makes the thick, wet noise in the back of his throat.  
"Father?" Lucy asks uncertainly.  
He staggers, taking me with him. His wings drop from around me, and that's when we all see my glory sword buried in his chest.  
I have struck his heart.  
The blade brightens as I readjust my grip on the handle. All around the wound his flesh sizzles, it heats and burns, the way it did that day in the woods with Samjeeza so long ago, when I destroyed his ear with glory, but this wound is on a much greater scale. Asael's mouth opens and closes, but no words come. The light of my sword is pouring into him. He looks at me like he doesn't recognise me, his hands grasp my shoulders, but he is suddenly weak, and I am strong, so very, very strong.  
I push the sword in deeper.  
He screams, then, a boom of agony that makes everyone but me cover their ears. Smoke pours off Asael as he leans against me, and I want to get away from him. My teeth come together as I put my hand against his collarbone and draw the bright sword out of his body. I step back. He falls to his knees, and my arm moves almost with a mind of its own, a mighty sweep that severs one enormous wing from his shoulder. It bursts into bits of feathers and smoke.  
Asael doesn't even seem to feel it. His hand is still at his heart, and suddenly he lifts his arms towards the sky in some sort of plea.  
"Forgive me," he croaks, and then he falls onto his face on the forest floor, and disappears.  
No one speaks. I bow my head for a minute, my hair falling wild around my face, the heat of the glory sword still moving through me, up my arm, curling around my elbow in bright tendrils. Then I look up at Lucy. She's still clutching Angela by the arm, her face slack with horror and dismay.  
I snatch Angela from her arms. Lucy reels around glaring at me, knife raised.  
"You. You have taken everything from me!"  
"Luce," Jeffery cajoles her. "put down the knife."  
"No!" she screams and leaps at me.  
There's a strange noise, something whistling by my head.  
And then there's a glory arrow sticking out of Lucy's chest.  
Jeffery steps forward, his face resolute but also shocked, like he didn't even know what he was doing up until now. He drops his arms.  
Lucy's dagger is gone. She crumbles to the ground, gasping like a beached fish.  
"Jeffery," she says, reaching for him. "Baby."  
He shakes his head.  
She turns onto her stomach like she's going to drag herself away from us. Then without warning she rolls into the lake, and she's gone.  
Christian is by my side in an instant.  
"Are you alright?' he asks.  
I nod and throw my arms around his neck. I breathe deep inhaling his scent. This is where I belong, in his arms. Always and forever.  
He holds me at arm's length and stares at me with his gorgeous green eyes. "You're incredible."  
He kisses my forehead and holds me close, swaying me gently.  
"Way to go, C," Angela says.  
I stare at her for a moment, then sigh. "Let's go home."  
I take her hand and she grabs Jeffery by the elbow. I concentrate on our house, the aspen tree in the yard.  
And then we're there.  
I try to take a step and stagger. Christian's arm is around me before I can fall.  
"Careful, you used a lot of juice teleporting us around."  
"I'm fine, really," I insist, but I don't shrug him off. I like his hands on me too much to do that.  
We dig up some cocoa and make hot chocolates to warm ourselves. I know how much Angela wants to see Web, but I'm not up to any more transporting tonight. Christian takes my hands and pulls me towards the front door. We sit down on the porch, staring up at the inky night sky. I sink back into his chest, feeling safe. At least for the moment.  
"I thought I was going to lose you," he whispers in my ear as he twirls a finger in my hair.  
I put my mug down and twist around to face him, leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek.  
"You'll never lose me." I smile.  
"You mean that?"  
"I do. We belong together remember. I know that now." I stroke his face. "I defeated Asael because of you. Because I love you."  
Christian's eyes glisten in the moonlight and he leans close. His fingertips dance across my jawline and then his lips brush across mine. We kiss, gentle at first, then with more heat. My hands find his hair and pull him deeper. We twine ourselves together like vines and a warm feeling spreads through me, buttery and golden. We are joined, our glory linking us together like a sun.  
Christian pulls back with a gasp. He looks at me for a moment, breathless, his lips swollen and pink. He tugs up his shirt revealing the long scar down his ribs.  
"It's healed," I say in amazement.  
"Must be the power of love." He smiles at me.  
I snigger and scrunch my nose up at the cheesy line. Christian silences me with another kiss.  
Here, under the lightening sky, I feel like everything was going to be okay. I know it won't be easy, but with my soul mate by my side, I will survive.  
After all, w_e belong together._


End file.
